Metro scaling back future transit plans to one light rail...

1of4Passengers walk from a Metropolitan Transit Authority Red Line train platform near the Houston Community College Northline Campus on Jan. 10. Metro plans to extend Red Line service to North Shepherd Park and Ride.Photo: Yi-Chin Lee, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

4of4A Metropolitan Transit Authority Red Line train and local bus converge along Main Street near the Wheeler Transit Center on Dec. 17, 2018, south of downtown Houston. The transit center will be an epicenter of some of Metro's planned improvements, namely bus rapid transit from Westchase to the University of Houston area.Photo: Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Voters have yet to decide on the next steps for transit in Houston, but officials are already scaling back plans for light rail in the region.

Metropolitan Transit Authority board members on Thursday agreed to plan on one light rail line to Hobby Airport, as opposed to the two initially proposed as part of the agency’s long-term transportation plan.

The first draft of the plan, dubbed Metro Moving Forward, included extensions of both the Purple Line and Green Line to Hobby. The proposal had the Purple coming from southeast Houston near MacGregor Park and the Green coming from near Gus Wortham Golf Course. The projects represented roughly $1.8 billion of the $7.5 billion Metropolitan Transit Authority plans to spend on major projects and improvements over the next 40 years.

Both of the light rail extensions enjoy support from local officials and residents along the planned routes to Hobby, but the plan of two routes to the same airport also drew criticism. Each of the routes also had skeptics, who noted the Purple Line would travel a loosely developed industrial area for part of the trip, while the Green Line’s straightest path - along Broadway - would anger some residents and force Metro to rebuild a street that the city spent money sprucing up for the Super Bowl in 2017.

Metro CEO Tom Lambert said staff will study the options and return to the board with a suggestion of which line to advance. Based on board comments, however, the Green Line had an edge. Terri Morales noted after driving the Purple Line’s proposed route, she felt there were many more clusters along the Green Line that made sense as potential stations and places where people would want to go.

Metro chairwoman Carrin Patman agreed, noting the economic potential of an East End line.

“I do not think the Purple route as currently designed to Hobby makes sense,” Patman said.

The primary selling point of the Purple Line is it would directly connect the University of Houston and Texas Southern University to the airport.

That potential left the Purple Line some life, in one scenario officials will examine. At the pressing of board member Sanjay Ramabhadran, Lambert said officials will also study if there is an intersection point where it makes sense to extend the Green and Purple light rail lines, then have one of the routes continue the trip to Hobby. That way, both neighborhoods have easier access, without the higher cost of two distinct rail lines.

“I want to see if we have that flexibility to make something work,” Ramabhadran said.

Officials have about three months to work out the details of a final plan, with the revised rail proposal, and then seek more public input. The long-range plan is tentatively expected to be approved by Metro’s board on July 29. The latest Metro can place an item on the November ballot is Aug. 19.

Light rail is a sizable portion, but not the bulk of Metro’s long-range plans for transit in Houston. Officials are proposing more than $3 billion in street work and bus purchases to create rapid transit lines along some core transit routes, such as from Uptown the Gulfton, within Loop 610 along Interstate 10 to downtown and along Westpark and local streets between the Sam Houston Tollway and the UH campus.

The potential to bulk up those services, in part, led to trimming the Hobby rail plans. Planners for example, propose connecting to George Bush Intercontinental Airport via bus rapid transit that relies on Interstate 45. For some transit officials, who note the Houston area is crisscrossed by freeways, leveraging them makes sense.

“We have got to stretch these dollars as much as we can,” Metro board member Cindy Siegel said.

Still, with a population boom to 10 million by 2040 possible, others urged Metro to make tough, costly and controversial decisions sooner rather than later.

“I cannot for the life of me understand why we can’t build more rail,” said board member Lex Frieden, citing people pushing Metro to extend lines to Pearland and Galveston.

Neither Pearland or Galveston is currently in Metro’s service area, though regional planning officials are studying high-capacity transit that would extend beyond the current transit agency limits.

Frieden said while he remains supportive of the plans, bolder thinking might be necessary.

“I really think we need to be thinking in terms of possibilities and not limitations,” he said.

Officials spent weeks soliciting input from groups and hosting public meetings, but are working with limited feedback, relative to the region. About 1,600 comments were gathered on the plan, sorted based on whether the comment dealt with light rail, local bus service, or other matters. Officials also summarized discussions among various groups, public officials and community meetings.

Broadly-speaking, comments favored investment that makes transit faster and more predictable in the area, with some differences based on region. In many suburban parts of Metro’s service area, there is growing demand and interest in park and ride service, while residents remain opposed to local bus service. In more transit-rich parts of Houston, people want faster trips that avoid freeway and major street congestion.

Soliciting public comment for the upcoming projects also generated a host of transit issues that don’t take millions of dollars to fix. Thursday, residents and business owners in the Eastex area near the Hardy Toll Road and Little York implored officials to add bus stops and improve sidewalks in the neighborhood.

Some children and parents are walking up to two miles to Patrick Henry Middle School because of a lack of convenient bus transfers, often along streets that lack sidewalks. In the area, which has heavy truck traffic and many industrial lots, students sometimes walk in the street.

“I have seen some children being chased by dogs,” resident Maria Ceja told Metro officials in Spanish, noting that transit is needed to protect people from harm.

The concerns about the area are not new. As Metro rolled out its bus system redesign, the area was considered for a flex route - also called a community connector that uses a small bus to roam a small area and connect users who call and request a ride to nearby major bus routes and transit centers, as well as destinations in the zone. Metro scaled back its plans for community connectors in 2015 to a single zone, in Acres Homes, after other communities balked at the service.

Since, the Acres Homes connector has proved popular and continues to operate. A second community connector was added last year in Missouri City.